Social Media Fake Hold on BSU Wrestling

As you might expect emotions ran high earlier this week when Boise State announced it was dropping wrestling to pursue baseball.

Social media lit up with shock, anger, opinions and ultimately fake news. The problem with fake news is there is almost always some element of truth to make the story believable but not enough truth or facts to make the story accurate.

In this case social media broke the news that Boise State President Robert Kustra was putting his decision to cancel wrestling on hold. Not true. The plan has never changed but there is a movement to create change and that was enough to prompt inaccurate tweets and face book posts.

The Association of Boise Students gathered for their regular meeting at which the BSU Wrestling team was in attendance to seek support and keep wrestling alive at Boise State.

That's exactly what you'd expect the wrestling team to do and they continue to seek ways to save their sport but it's a long process and any report that Dr. Kustra has changed reversed his announcement has no validity.

Remember, dropping wrestling wasn't about wins or loses but the future financial well being of the  BSU Athletic vision. Division I schools offering wrestling has dropped from 117 in the late 1990's to 79 in 2016. Baseball on the other had has remained strong and is a sport Boise State needs to be considered for upwards Conference movement. Even in the Mountain West Boise State is the only school without baseball.

Toss in fact the Boise Hawks are working on a new downtown stadium which would be shared by Boise State baseball and a pro soccer team and you can see the baseball pendulum has swung and hit a home run.

As Boise State officials said earlier this week, dropping wrestling was no easy decision and that's why they continue to honor the scholarships and coaching contracts as they help athletes and coaches to find new careers.

Meantime as the grandfather of a state high school wrestling champion in Washington I have nothing but respect and support for the BSU wrestlers trying to save their sport. It is one of the toughest most demanding sports ever. There is no quit in wrestlers and I expect and encourage them to fight to the finish.